Two weeks ago, our book club met to discuss The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. We were fortunate to have had two ladies of Indian descent present and they offered their unique perspectives on this book. Names and identity are central themes and our ice-breaker question was whether we ever wished we had a different name. I often felt that “Debbie” sounded like a blonde cheerleader name and did not fit who I was, or who I wanted to be, but I never really felt compelled to change it. The use of pet names or nicknames is similar to other cultures, but the identity of our main character stems from cultural confusion over the “good name” versus the “pet name”. It was interesting to learn about how much of the cultural background resonated for our discussion and the focus of this book.
This segued into our discussion of Gogol, the main character and how he seemed to be doomed to unhappiness from the beginning. His parents try to keep exclusively to Bengali traditions while Gogol tries to be an American. I expected him to only find fulfillment by following the only ways, but that path leads to more misery in the form of his cheating wife. There has been a dichotomy between generations in the immigrant experience between those who push for Americanization and those who want their children to hold the old ways.
Gogol’s sister, Sonia, is the only one coming away at the end with being happy because she finds a way to combine the two sides of her background. There is no virtue in pursuing the extreme of either lifestyle, but a balance of the two. In the end, we all agreed that America is strongest as a mix of cultures, the old ‘melting pot’ concept.
My Geeky Book Life 